6:15 am

Wed February 22, 2012

Massey Mine Boss Charged In Deadly Coal Mine Explosion

(Scroll down for several updates and the document prosecutors filed today.)

Federal prosecutors in Charleston, W.Va., have filed the most serious criminal charges yet in the April, 2010, coal mine explosion that left 29 mine workers dead.

The conspiracy charges reach into the management ranks of Massey Energy and signal an effort to seek evidence against higher-level executives.

A "criminal information" accuses Gary May, a former superintendent of Massey's Upper Big Branch coal mine, of conspiring "with others known and unknown" to "hamper, hinder, impede, and obstruct the lawful enforcement ... of mine health and safety laws" at the mine.

As a superintendent, May was one of two top Massey managers at the mine and was responsible for day to day operations for portions of Upper Big Branch. He took on the superintendent's job five months before the explosion, which multiple investigations have blamed on numerous safety failures. The specific allegations against May include:

-- Warning miners underground with "code phrases" when federal regulators arrived for surprise safety inspections, leading to concealment of violations.

Prosecutors do not directly link any of these allegations with the explosion two years ago, which was the worst mine disaster in the United States in 40 years. Instead, they suggest an alleged pattern of behavior that put production over safety and placed miners at risk.

"Mine safety and health laws were routinely violated" at Upper Big Branch, the charging document says, "in part because of a belief that following those laws would decrease coal production."

May is the most senior mining company official charged criminally in a mine disaster in at least 10 years. The conspiracy charges are part of a rare if not unprecedented strategy to seek charges against higher level managers and executives at Massey Energy.

Using a "criminal information" document for charges bypasses a federal grand jury and indicates the defendant has accepted a plea agreement and is ready to testify against others.

Documents released in earlier investigative reports about the tragedy show that the mine was micro-managed by senior Massey officials, including former CEO Don Blankenship. The internal company records and Blankenship's own deposition in another case describe the tracking of coal production minute by minute and foot by foot.

May is the third former Massey employee charged in an ongoing federal criminal probe.

Hughie Stover, a former security chief at the Upper Big Branch mine, was convicted in October of attempting to destroy evidence and lying to investigators about the practice of warning miners when federal regulators arrived for surprise inspections. Stover is scheduled for sentencing next week and prosecutors say they want a 25-year jail term, which is close to four times the term calculated in federal sentencing guidelines.

Last April, former mine foreman Thomas Harrah pleaded guilty to faking his official credentials and then lying about that to investigators.

The methane monitor incident involving May was first reported and documented by NPR. A number of witnesses told NPR that a few months before the explosion, May ordered an electrician to disable the device, which is used to detect explosive levels of the gas.

Methane occurs naturally in coal mines and the monitors shut down mining machines before they can spark an explosion. Operating a mining machine without a working monitor is illegal and puts miners at risk.

The April 5, 2010, explosion was sparked by a different mining machine in another part of the mine.

Prosecutors say May faces as much as five years in prison if convicted but they won't discuss any possible plea agreement or whom else their investigation targets.

Update at 3:30 p.m. ET. The Important Distinction Between "Criminal Information" And An Indictment:

Later today on All Things Considered we'll have more. One important point: It's clear that prosecutors are looking beyond Gary May because they filed charges in what is called a criminal information and not an indictment. Former federal prosecutor David Uhlmann says a defendant "would wave indictment if he or she were going to cooperate with prosecutors and testify against other individuals. That almost always means officials who are higher up within the company."

U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin hints at a plea agreement and cooperation. "Without commenting specifically on this case," he says, "I can tell you that a defendant can only be charged by information if he agrees to waive his constitutional right to indictment. And information typically indicates that an agreement has been reached with the defendant and that he's cooperating with the government's investigation."

That's welcome news to Gary Quarles, whose son Gary Wayne died in the Upper Big Branch explosion. "I think it's past time for them to put people like this in jail," he says. "I hope [May] can talk and maybe get some more people that's involved in this ... [and] put some of them in jail. That's what I want."

We've posted a copy of the document filed in court today by the U.S. Attorney. You can see it here or in the box below. Just click on the headline "Charging Document" to pop up a larger version.

May, from Bloomingrose, W.Va., is 43-years-old. If convicted, he faces a possible jail sentence of five years.

Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Transcript

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Melissa Block.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

And I'm Audie Cornish. Federal prosecutors filed conspiracy charges today stemming from the explosion that killed 29 coal miners two years ago. Prosecutors say a top official from the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia tricked regulators into believing the mine was safe when it wasn't. He's charged with conspiring to defraud the federal government. And as NPR's Howard Berkes reports, there may be more charges to come.

HOWARD BERKES, BYLINE: Forty-three-year-old Gary May was one of two superintendents at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine, and prosecutors say he thwarted surprise federal safety inspections, falsified safety records, deceived federal inspectors and ordered a dangerous act: the disabling of a monitor that detects explosive levels of methane gas. That was in February 2010. And mine worker Ricky Lee Campbell watched as May told an electrician to disable the methane detector.

RICKY LEE CAMPBELL: He knew it was dangerous. He knew he shouldn't have been doing it. But when somebody higher up telling you to do something, you're going to do what they say.

BERKES: The detector malfunctioned and kept shutting down a mining machine cutting coal. Instead of waiting a couple of hours for a new detector, May had it jerry-rigged so mining could continue. That risked an ignition of methane gas and the kind of explosion that took place less than three months later. The incident illustrates Massey Energy's management, and the charges are aimed at that, says Davitt McAteer, who conducted an independent investigation of the tragedy.

DAVITT MCATEER: The issue has to be what was going on in this mine that led to the conditions that caused the explosion, and that was a management role, and this looks at that question very carefully.

BERKES: It's also clear that prosecutors are looking beyond Gary May because they filed charges in what is called a criminal information and not an indictment. David Uhlmann is a former federal prosecutor.

DAVID UHLMANN: The defendant would waive indictment if he or she was going to cooperate with prosecutors and testify against other individuals. That almost always means officials who are higher up within the company.

BERKES: U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin hints that that is, in fact, the case.

BOOTH GOODWIN: Without commenting specifically on this case, I can tell you that a defendant can only be charged by information if he agrees to waive his constitutional right to indictment. And information typically indicates that an agreement has been reached with the defendant and that he's cooperating with the government's investigation.

BERKES: And that is welcome news to Gary Quarles, whose son Gary Wayne died in the Upper Big Branch explosion.

GARY QUARLES: I think it's past time for them to put people like this in jail. I hope he can talk and maybe get some more people that's involved in this, that they can put some of them in jail. That's what I want.

BERKES: And that's rare in mine disasters. Few people ever go to jail. In fact, Gary May, a mine superintendent, is the highest-ranking mine official charged in a disaster in 20 years. Neither May nor his attorney responded to NPR's requests for comment. Howard Berkes, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.